OP-ED: The Good News About Coal
WASHINGTON, Jun 28 2011 (IPS) – During the years when governments and the media were focused on preparations for the 2009 Copenhagen climate negotiations, a powerful climate movement was emerging in the United States: the movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants.
Environmental groups, both national and local, are opposing coal plants because they are the primary driver of climate change. Emissions from coal plants are also responsible for a number that dwarfs the U.S. lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
What began as a few local ripples of resistance quickly evolved into a national tidal wave of grassroots opposition from environmental, health, farm, and community organisations. Despite a heavily funded industry campaign to promote clean c…
Global Fund for AIDS, TB, Malaria “Not in Crisis”
WASHINGTON, Apr 26 2012 (IPS) – Although coming off a rocky year in 2011, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is not in crisis , according to the organisation s deputy general manager, Debrework Zewdie.
At a roundtable organised on Wednesday by the Council on Foreign Relations here, Zewdie stated that after being forced to weather a scandal last year and the ongoing international economic downturn, the is once again receiving substantial commitments from bilateral donors.
A day after the news was officially disclosed to the Global Fund s governing board, Zewdie announced new or renewed multi-year funding promises from Germany, Japan, Spain and the UK. The Global Fund s most significant donor, the United States, has maintained its backing throughout the …